Each GUID key represents one network and contains the associated friendly name within the ProfileName string entry.

Select the connection whose network location you want to change. Copy the GUID of that network including the brackets - { } - and paste it into the string below. You will replace the GUID ID in the string below as that string is simply an example.

I can't believe MS frigging disabled showing the recycle bin prompt each time you delete a file by default.

That's just... Pretty much everyone who has ran a computer for years or some computing device has accidentally deleted a file and recovered it from the recycle bin only because they saw that prompt. There's streamlining, and then there's carelessly streamlining...

Did they change the shift+delete behavior as well? I'm fine not seeing a prompt for recycling bin since things are still recoverable at that point, but taking it away from a shift+delete could be dangerous.

I added some info about Activating Windows 8 Enterprise. Not sure if that quirk exists on Home or Pro.

superjawes wrote:

Did they change the shift+delete behavior as well? I'm fine not seeing a prompt for recycling bin since things are still recoverable at that point, but taking it away from a shift+delete could be dangerous.

Shift+Del result in a are you sure confirmation prompt.

"Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends. We're so glad you could attend. Come inside! Come inside!"

1. The mail app sucks. It doesn't seem to work right at all. Not all of the apps settings are exposed by going to the apps settings, I have discovered. Some settings can only be accessed in certain ways.

2. The Modern UI is less unobtrusive than I thought. It's kludgy. And I'll tell you what this OS needs is a keyboard shortcut list. Any Google Docs users here? In Google Docs if you press Ctrl + / it brings up a menu of all available keyboard shortcuts. Windows 8 needs this badly. All in all, Modern UI is half backed and does not enhance desktop productivity. This hurts for me to say because I had a lot of hope. Oh, and live tiles are totally distracting, and by the time I cleared all the tiles off that I'll never use there are very few tiles left, making the whole Modern UI essentially worthless.

3. Backup is totally WTF'd up. I did an in-place upgrade from Windows 7. My data backup from Windows 7 is inaccessible by Windows 8. Furthermore, Windows 8 tells me that my disk is in immanent risk of failure, which it most certainly is not. Apparently this is a widespread problem.

In my opinion, if I am frustrated with Modern UI, there are going to be many millions frustrated by it, because I tend to be more forgiving of unfamiliar UIs than most.

If you don't mind, I'd like to split off your post into an independent thread. I'd like the odds and ends to be for tips, tricks, and changes.

A few things to try to solve the issue.

1. I'd suggest Windows Live Mail or even Thunderbird for the desktop. The mail app is not well fleshed, IIRC Peter Bright bagged on it pretty hard in his review as well.

2. I found that pinning my most commonly used apps to the taskbar was more rich an outcome for me than worrying about the start screen. You can right click on the icons in the start screen and select to pin them to the taskbar. Uncommonly used apps I left pinned to the start screen to access. Rarely used apps I just search for.

win + x, win + i, win + f, win + c

These four short cuts I found to be the most rich in terms of use.

Remember that typing at the start screen brings up search as well.

It took me a day or two to get comfy. Your first thoughts about how to access something aren't typically available. After a week I was ready to transition my laptop over and was settled in.

I do think that more access tips after install would have been a helpful choice from Microsoft.

Take ownership of the contents, this should make them accessible. The backups that Windows 7 created used .vhd files so once you have ACL permissions to them you should be able to do things like mount the backups like a hard disk for example.

As for the imminent failure bit, sounds like you found an answer there. Weird stuff.

Ideally for Windows 8 I suggest a transition from an MBR to GPT disk for it (there are a handful of GPT benefits including faster boot, better security, and better fault tolerance). Windows 8 converts disks to GPT by default in a fresh install on a UEFI system, but many people did upgrades instead. To make the change now would require for partitions to be wiped. Unfortunately sounds like you don't have the space for that kind of shuffle at the moment. :(

"Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends. We're so glad you could attend. Come inside! Come inside!"

So, on both my main computer and in a virtual machine, I've noticed the following: soon after a fresh OS install and during initial system configuration I run disk cleanup for the first time, the process freezes, I quit the process and then reboot the machine, and during the shutdown process a "Windows is configuring your updates" message appears and then the shutdown process freezes, so I hard-reset, then the "Windows is configuring your updates" message appears again during startup; afterwards, everything seems normal. But this has been repeatable for me on two different "computers" if you're willing to count my virtual machine as a computer.

I dont know if this should go here but I didnt want to start yet another Win8 thread.

I see a problem with Alt-Tabbing open programs, Its not as smooth as it was before and I dont get the little window that shows open programs like in Win7. When I alt- tab its a luck of the draw of which program I am tabbing to. Also its not as quick as it was before and my screen goes black for about 2-3 seconds before coming 'on' to the alt-tabbed program.

Anyone encounter this and have a solution?

(\_/) (O.o)(''')(''') Watch out for evil Terra-Tron; He Does not like you!

I dont know if this should go here but I didnt want to start yet another Win8 thread.

You made the right choice, in my opinion. This thread should be sticky as the general Windows 8 problems and solutions thread, IMO.

I see a problem with Alt-Tabbing open programs, Its not as smooth as it was before and I dont get the little window that shows open programs like in Win7. When I alt- tab its a luck of the draw of which program I am tabbing to. Also its not as quick as it was before and my screen goes black for about 2-3 seconds before coming 'on' to the alt-tabbed program.

Well, I don't have any problem like that. Alt+Tab brings up the programs I can switch between and does so instantaneously without any glitchy-ness. So you definitely have an issue.

I've got my list of issues. For instance, Windows 8 keeps dropping my mapped network drives. It's F-ing annoying. Also, every once in a while, it will decide that any file saved or renamed on a network drive needs to adhere to eight-dot-three format. Takes a reboot to fix these.

But, for the most part the OS stays out of my way and lets me get work done.

Last edited by Flying Fox on Sat Jul 27, 2013 1:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason:Edit by mod - merged into odds and ends thread, please do not spawn multiple threads essentially on bitching about the OS

Windows 8 IS a good OS. Microsoft made a lot of improvements under the head. It's really just the gui. Bring back the start button (AND start menu) and people seem to be pretty happy with it, so I don't think anything more is needed. Of course, even with a start button/menu, I really really like my Aero gui.

Great thread by the way. Here are some that I have noticed myself in Windows 8 Pro with media center x64 (StartIsBack is also installed):

Scheduled tasks can't be set up to send e-mail or display a message. The options exist but only to manage scheduled tasks on computers running windows 7 or earlier.

Windows 8 will automatically log in the last user logged into the machine before shut down if said user does not have a password. This isn't so bad if you're the only user on the machine, but if there are multiple users and a password-less account was signed on last it can get pretty annoying.

If you set Windows Updates to alert but never download/install automatically you will never see a prompt a la XP/Vista/7 in the notification area on the desktop. I have read that you're supposed to see them pop-up or at least show up in the action center notification icon but I have never seen this. I only see an alert when I'm at the login page -- it may appear somewhere in the start page interface but as I have StartIsBack installed I am never on that page.

I’ve been using it for months before the general release (MSDN), there’s really no reason for 8 users not to upgrade ASAP. I don’t even use StartIsBack anymore now that universal start search is back. Lots of nice little tweaks around both modes of UI. And it's nice to know they're still always improving the graphics pipeline and other nitty gritty performance stuff even if the difference isn't too noticeable over 8.

And gah, the start screen complainers. My usage is the exact same as it was on 7. Hit start button, enter a few letters of what I want, hit enter, and bam it's open on the desktop. You can still pin things to the taskbar too, you know. And if you really still can't stand either of those, there's always startisback.

It’s a shame that they still don’t allow IE extensions. IE11 is FAST. In my testing, even faster than Chrome, and worlds ahead of Firefox in both their latest releases. The GPU acceleration is top notch, everything is very smooth. If it had extensions, I’d consider making it my primary browser. But with Quero adblock I don't even mind lack of extensions that much, but I'll still stick to Chrome.